The Pluth Building was originally constructed in 1885 as a two-story building with a French-style mansard roof reaching the height of the current building's third floor. Its upstairs contained mirrored apartment living areas with a parlor, bedroom, and kitchen. The site at 119 South Main Street had earlier been the Waterloo House, part of a hotel block that also included the Southern Hotel and the City Hotel. Only the base of the original building remains today. The first owners, Jacob Pluth and his wife, Anna Pluth nee Berger, operated a dry goods store in the split downstairs, selling items such as salt blocks, pecans, blinder twine, and worker's clothing, with Jacob known for sewing machines and Anna for silks and woolens. After Jacob died in 1912, Anna became sole owner and on December 10, 1920, commissioned the building to two bankers, including Charles Morrison. It was sold to Morris Lodge No. 787, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, on February 28, 1921 for $11,000 as a permanent meeting place. The lodge had previously met in the Ruch Building and the John Pieper Building. Extensive renovations were required because there was no running water or electricity to meet city code requirements. The exterior brick was replaced, and a third story designed as a Masonic Temple was added in place of the mansard roof. The renovations took two years and cost $32,783. A sister group, the Eastern Star, also met on the second floor. The lodge also became home to two Revolutionary War treasures: a gavel presented on April 13, 1905 by Brother Hugo Rothstein and made from a tree that grew over George Washington's tomb, and Tyler's Sword, believed to have been presented by Brother Peter Rogers, founder of Peterstown, which his father had carried in the Revolutionary War as one of George Washington's Life Guards at Trenton and Valley Forge. At the same time the Masons moved into 119 South Main Street, the Bersche family leased the north half of the downstairs at 117 South Main Street for $75 a month for their jewelry and watchmaking business, later passed from Jacob Bersche to his son Fritz Bersche, a watchmaker and sewing machine repairman. The business was later bought by the Reime family and renamed Reime Jewelers, operated by Robert Reime and then his son Scot Reime. Around 1923, August Bodenbach opened a haberdashery on the south side of the downstairs at 115 South Main Street and remained there until the late 1960s, when Cal Bode opened a men's clothing store. In the late 1970s, Bode's Men's Wear moved out and Reime Jewelers expanded by removing the wall between the two downstairs halves. Reime Jewelry closed in 2009 when Harriett Reime retired. Soon afterward, Dolores Guettermen rented the downstairs for her quilting shop, Raccoon Hollow Fabrics, until moving to Maeystown in late 2014. In May 2015, Chris Rahn and his wife Tammy leased the bottom floor of the Masonic Lodge to open the Stubborn German Brewing Company.